Locals, hipsters and councillors are at odds over glossy plans to revamp the Truman Brewery in London’s East End enclave
For more than 300 years, it was the industrial heart of Brick Lane in east London, a vast rat-ridden edifice in which thousands of workers brewed beer. One man, who worked there in the early 1960s, said “it looked like something out of Oliver Twist, with dark narrow streets filled with strange-looking characters and Hasidic Jews walking around in long black coats mixing with Cockney barrow boys selling their wares”.
Now, the former Truman Brewery is to become a gleaming complex of offices, shops, restaurants and a gym after the local council approved plans last week to redevelop the site, currently occupied by hundreds of small independent businesses and creative workspaces.